Health Hack: Meal Planning Made Easy

At best, Krista and I spend hours planning healthy meals for the week, only to get home from a long day and not feel like cooking the planned meal. At worst, we don’t feel like making any decisions and cook what’s easiest. Cereal, anyone?

But Chef Allison Schaaf is here to save us all from making the lazy, substandard, unhealthy food choices we tend to make after tiresome days of work with PrepDish: a subscription service that provides healthy, creative meal plans for the week. And, I want to be up-front with you: This is NOT a sponsored post. I am writing this because PrepDish is just downright awesome, and its awesomeness must be shared with the world.

This service has saved us time and energy, enables us to spend more time together, and has made our lives healthier.

Krista and I have been using the PrepDish meal subscriptions for the last couple of weeks, and have found it to be easy, healthy, and something fun to do together. We usually go grocery shopping on Friday morning, and then prep sometime on Sunday after Church. Sure, it takes a couple hours. But, it’s time we intentionally spend together. After that, it generally takes less than 15-minutes to prep a meal the night you’re ready to have it.

And the best part? There are no decisions to be made. There’s no guessing about whether the meal is healthy. And it’s actually enjoyable. We have fun prepping the meals together, and it has made us more intentional about sitting down and eating as a family.

The meals are also flexible. Chef Schaaf encourages people to make the recipes their own, and “swap veggies out for your favorites, use the fruit that is looking especially good at the grocery store that week, increase/decrease portions as needed, etc.”**

We have found that PrepDish provides the perfect amount of food for the week. We generally do not eat more than four meals at home, especially during wedding season. Since the dinners are portioned for four people, we use leftovers for lunch the next day. And pre-made snacks like trailmix and fresh fruit make for an easy grab when you’re in rush. It’s a step up from rummaging around the pantry for whatever sugary snack I could find and eat quickly!

You can sign-up for a free 1-week meal plan on the website. If you like it, subscribe monthly for $14/month, or annually for $99/year. So go ahead and start grubbing on some Pork, Pineapple, and Veggie Kabobs, Walnut Crusted Chicken with Sauteed Spinach, Bison Burger with Sweet Potato Wedges, and Almond Butter Brownies.

I think you’ll find out what we did: The best kind of meal planning is the kind where you don’t have to plan. Oh, and when it’s done by a Chef who is also a Registered Dietician.

Or you could always continue eating cereal three times a day.

Have questions, or your own tips on eating healthy throughout the week? Please leave a comment below!

Perfect timing! I’m always striving on ways to improve my daily living and this nugget of info is a game changer. We order out almost every night, because I’m super busy with family life/business/work/school! Prepping and knowing what was coming up for our weeknight dinner made things so much easier to get a home cooked meal on the table. THANK YOU!

I can’t even stick 100% to a recipe, so buying a meal plan sounds crazy to me! Luckily I love to plan out things, and my confidence has grown after I started cooking more often. Everything I cook is healthy and tasty, as well as easy, using simple and cheap ingredients. I just love food! Eating food, thinking about food, meal planning, food shopping, cooking, even the cleaning up afterwards 😀